Why We Wrote This
Who reports the news? People. And at 海角大神, we believe that it鈥檚 our job to report each story with a sense of shared humanity. Through conversations with our reporters and editors, we explain the qualities behind our reporting that affect how we approach the news. Behind today鈥檚 headlines we find respect, resilience, dignity, agency, and hope. 鈥淲hy We Wrote This鈥� shows how. The Monitor is an award-winning, nonpartisan news organization with bureaus around the globe. Visit CSMonitor.com/whywewrotethis to learn more.
Say That Again: To Build A Voice
For someone with a speech disability, what does it mean to have a voice? In our final episode, we pose the question to two families: one with a husband losing his ability to talk, and another with a disabled son on the cusp of adulthood. Each is looking to technology to help them literally be heard with their own unique voices. At the same time, they remind us that to be human is to be so much more than the sounds we make.
Say That Again: Our Listeners Speak
In this episode, we break format to have a conversation about accent, language, and identity with special guest and recurring contributor Katherine Kinzler from the University of Chicago. We talk about the challenges of overcoming bias, share listeners鈥� experiences (as well as our own), and reflect on the series so far.
Say That Again: Language Lesson
Imagine teaching a language you鈥檙e still learning. Or raising your kids to speak it when you鈥檙e not yet fluent. For communities trying to revive their Indigenous languages, these are daily challenges 鈥� and at stake are both the history and future of their culture. In this episode, we meet educators and parents fighting to give their children their ancestral language, Ling铆t (Tlingit). What does it take to save a language?
Say That Again: Talking Black, With Pride
Language has power. This was a hard-earned lesson for Vivian Nixon and Elaine Richardson, two women who were told all their lives that their way of talking 鈥� talking Black 鈥� was something to be kept out of public and professional spaces. This episode follows their separate journeys to embrace the history, beauty, and breadth of Black English, and liberate long-buried parts of themselves in the process.
Say That Again: Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Legally, you can discriminate against someone because of their accent. Dominic Amegashitsi found this out firsthand when he first came to the U.S. from Ghana to start a new life. This episode follows his journey to communicating more confidently, and examines our assumptions about what it means to communicate well in one of the most important spaces in American life: the workplace.
Say That Again: Hey Ma, I鈥檓 On TV!
Diversity in media isn鈥檛 just about the way characters look; it鈥檚 also about how they sound. The creators of 鈥淢olly of Denali鈥� knew that when they started producing the animated kids鈥� show about the adventures of an Alaska Native girl. We talk to producers about what it takes to meaningfully portray Indigenous peoples on screen. And we meet a family in Fairbanks, Alaska, who share with us what it鈥檚 like to finally see their own experiences 鈥� and hear their people鈥檚 voices 鈥� represented in ways that make them proud.
Say That Again: You Are How You Sound
After years of trying to blend in as a Los Angeles transplant, Cynthia Santos DeCure realized she had all but lost her Puerto Rican accent. So she set out to reclaim it. Across the country, Amy Mihyang Ginther struggled to find her voice as a young girl living in one world 鈥� the mostly white community she grew up in 鈥� while yearning for another 鈥� the Korean family who gave her up for adoption. Each woman鈥檚 story is a journey to discover what our voices say about who we are and who we could be.
Introducing: "Say That Again?"
What do our voices say about us? 鈥淪ay That Again?鈥� is a new podcast series about how our identities and experiences shape how we sound 鈥� and how the way we speak can be a source of pride, resilience, and shared understanding. New episodes weekly beginning Feb. 25.
Holiday Episode No. 5: Joy
Home Forum contributors Murr Brewster and Robert Klose were the top-of-mind answers to Monitor editors鈥� question: 鈥淲ho should we bring to the table this holiday season to discuss joy?鈥� Listen as the two writers talk about how, for them, joy requires that you be your authentic self. And that you keep moving, and looking.
Holiday Episode No. 4: Hope
In August, the United States left Afghanistan after 20 years. The Taliban poured in. Monitor writers Scott Peterson and Ann Scott Tyson spoke about how Ann managed to find light in this dark situation 鈥� in the brave work of PARSA鈥檚 Afghan National Scouts. She knew one the organization鈥檚 leaders, Marnie Gustavson, and got in touch. 鈥淚t became apparent,鈥� Ann says, 鈥渢hat this story was important to tell.鈥�